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1.UK – P2P

P2P Finance News reports Victory Park’s investment shift from P2P.

“VICTORY Park Capital Specialty Lending (VPC) has announced the sale of its Prosper marketplace loans as it continues to shift its portfolio from peer-to-peer lending towards balance sheet assets.

The alternative-finance focused investment trust used its November monthly report to reveal it had sold loans held with the US platform during November and had subsequently reduced its marketplace loan exposure to 3.4 per cent of its portfolio.

The money raised has been reinvested into other balance sheet investments, which now account for 79 per cent of its portfolio, up from 70 per cent in November.”

Equity crowdfunding allows people to invest in early-stage companies that are not listed on stock exchanges such as the FTSE100, in exchange for shares in the firm.

Interest in this form of investment has grown rapidly in recent years. UK data company Beauhurst released figures in July 2017 which showed equity investment in Britain reached record levels in the first half of the year, increasing by 75 per cent since the second half of 2016."

Quartz reports the Chinese authorities’ order for “an orderly withdrawal” from Bitcoin mining.

“Bitcoin mining could be on its last legs in China.

The country’s top internet-finance regulator, the Leading Group of Internet Financial Risks Remediation, issued a notice asking local governments to “guide” bitcoin-mining operations to make an “orderly exit” from the business, according to a leaked document online. Citing government sources, Bloomberg and Reuters earlier reported that China is planning to limit electricity supply to bitcoin miners.

“Currently, there are some so-called ‘mining’ enterprises that produce ‘virtual currencies.’ They have consumed huge amounts of resources and stoked speculation of ‘virtual currencies,’” according to the document dated Jan. 2.

The document, issued to local offices of the internet-finance regulator, asks local authorities to use measures linked to electricity price, land use, tax, and environmental protection, among other things, to guide bitcoin miners to quit the business. It also asks the local offices to report information about mining facilities in their regions, as well as the progress of the exits from mining by Jan. 10, and then on the tenth day of every month.”

“An initial coin offering (ICO) is an alternative to the traditional models of start-up and other companies to raise capital. In Thailand, the Securities and Exchange Commission (the Thai SEC) recently expressed their view on ICOs indicating they realize the potential of ICOs to satisfy startup funding needs; however, without governmental regulation, the Thai SEC also expressed concerns about ICO scams which is similar to the Investor Alert issued by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (the U.S. SEC) in August of 2017.

Regarding the features of an ICO, in general, investors participate in an ICO by transferring fiat or digital currencies in exchange for digital tokens. In practice, in an ICO process the promoters and initial sellers may refer to a return of which investors might benefit from by participating in an ICO.

To this extent, it leads to the question that whether above-mentioned digital tokens shall be considered a security and then will it be subject to the existing securities laws.”